Superseed
Action-forward wisdom from climate and social justice heroes on how to seed change for individual + collective justice.
Superseed
EP 08: Indigenous Solar, MMIP, and Trauma-Informed Justice Work With Founder of Sacred Earth Solar Melina Laboucan-Massimo
Welcome to episode 8 of Supersede! Today, Melina Laboucan-Massimo joins Madeleine on the podcast to discuss the many ways activism has interwoven with her life. Rooting the conversation in her upbringing in Northern Alberta, Melina describes the way place drew her to activism, and shares her journey working to “stop the destruction and start the healing” in the Athabasca tar sands.
As Melina discusses her 20 years of work on social, environmental, and climate justice issues, she also stresses the importance of rest and care alongside work. Amidst a capitalist culture of burnout and stress, how can we simultaneously make justice movements trauma-informed and caring places?
Looking towards the future, Melina is actively building towards a just renewable energy transition through her organization Sacred Earth Solar, and is bringing awareness to climate work through her TV show Power to the people. As we build the blueprint for a better world, Melina reminds us how we must heal and support our community through transition.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo is Lubicon Cree from Northern Alberta. Melina is the Founder of Sacred Earth Solar and Co-Founder and Senior Director at Indigenous Climate Action. Melina is the inaugural fellow at the David Suzuki Foundation where her research focused on Climate Change, Indigenous Knowledge and Renewable Energy. She is the host of a TV docu series called Power to the People which profiles renewable energy in Indigenous communities across the country. Melina holds a Master's degree in Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria with a focus on Renewable Energy. As a part of her master's thesis Melina implemented a 20.8 kW solar project in her home community of Little Buffalo which powers the health center in the heart of the tar sands.
MMIP RESOURCES:
Melina’s Socials:
Instagram: @Melina_miyowapan
Twitter: @Melina_MLM
https://www.indigenousclimateaction.com/
Seeding Sovereignty's Socials
Instagram/TikTok/Twitter/YouTube: @seedingsovereignty
Website: www.seedingsovereignty.org
Madeleine's Socials
Instagram/TikTok: @madeleinemacgillivray
Website: www.madeleinemacgillivray.com
Madeleine:
Hi, Molina, welcome to Super Seed.
Melina:
Thank you for having me. It's nice to be here.
Madeleine:
It's so nice to see you and talk to you. It's been a while since we talked and actually saw each other. You've been up to a lot and I would love to talk about all of that. But I think first it would be best for the folks who are listening to just get, you know, who are you, what is your work and kind of feel free to like go into as much depth as possible or as you want to, as much or as little as you want to. on your work and really what brought you into this work.
Melina:
Well, ten sekwakiya, so greetings everybody and listeners and Madeline. My name Nia Niamelina, Nia Wapen Labokan Maswa, Nia Nihiau, Kina Skumtanawau. That is my language, Nihiau, also known as Cree. For introducing myself, I come from a small Cree community in the far north. It's called Little Buffalo is my reserve. It's where I was born. and I'm Lubukon Cree. My membership is Lubukon Cree Nation. And yeah, I was born in a place for folks that aren't from so-called Canada, north of Montana and about eight hours north, drive from the city of Calgary, so up in the Boreal Forest in the heart of the Tar Sands and was born into, yeah, small Cree community there and born and raised in the north of Alberta and then currently make my home in. unceded Lekwungen territory on the West Coast. But yeah, I'm currently one of the co-founders of Indigenous Climate Action and founder of Sacred or Solar. And I've been working on social, environmental and climate justice issues for the past 20 years.
Madeleine:
Thank you for that intro. I wanna go to where you grew up and talk a bit about the tar sands. I, by the way, will never forget that actually you took us on a healing walk in 2013. It was like 10 years ago.
Melina:
Mm.
Madeleine:
And so let's talk about that a little bit. because my memories of that are actually quite visceral still. It was extremely impactful for me. And so maybe talk a little bit about growing up near the tar sands and then sort of the work that you've been doing with healing walks or sort of just spreading awareness and talking about it to folks.
Melina:
Sure. Yeah, I remember that. You and your mom came. And yeah, we did healing walks for five years in the Tar Sands. There's actually going to be another one this coming summer. And it was Indigenous grandmothers, elders, that kind of signaled to us as younger organizers from the region to organize a walk. in prayer. We wanted to do something because the motto is like, I'll never forget it's stop the destruction, start the healing. And it was like a banner that we carried on the 13 kilometer road, which was like a tour around one of the most impacted areas. I mean, there's so much impacted areas in the tar sands. For listeners, it's kind of crazy. People don't really understand how big it is. It's one of the biggest industrial projects on the planet. And it is, you know, for the extraction zone, for the impact zone, we're talking about the whole, you know, entire size of the state of Florida, like of impact zone. And that's only 23% of the actual province of Alberta. But we're talking about, you know, impacting, destroying a fourth of that landmass. Or if you're from Europe, England and Wales combined. So we're talking about a huge impact zone that's bigger than entire cities, that's bigger than entire countries. or like huge states like Florida. And that's where I come from along with many other indigenous communities. So I was born in the peace country, which is on the Western area of the region. And it's, you know, we're talking about 141,000 square kilometers, it's huge. And so I come from that region but have worked with many other indigenous communities and people in solidarity with one another to... raise awareness about this impact. I first started speaking, my first panel ever was in 2007 when I spoke about it, but I had already been doing work before that around indigenous rights and even around media literacy, when indigenous people's stories were not anywhere because we didn't have social media. So I worked in magazines, I worked at an indigenous media arts group, a filmmaking indigenous led organization to... raise awareness about the issues that more people know about today thanks to social media and a lot of people that are kind of very active in social media. But we've had to push really hard for our stories to be heard and to be told by us for a very long time. And that's what I first started doing, you know, close to 20 years ago and went into environmental campaigning from there and was, you know, I just... People didn't talk about these issues growing up in Alberta. They just called it the rigs. They didn't talk about that it was one of the biggest industrial impact zones in the world. And they didn't talk about how it was a very hard, like the bottom, the most dirtiest form of oil on the planet and kind of like the bottom of the barrel. It's not free flowing. It's like very solid. It's not viscous. It's like sand and clay and silt and you have to extract. 11% of oil out of tar sands, literally. And so it's very water intensive, very carbon intensive, and a mass amount of pollution that's leaching into our aquifers and into the land every day, now, now, now, now, now, now. Millions of cubic liters of toxic sludge every day, that's the byproduct. And so that's what our communities are faced with, that's what our communities have lived with. And for me, Uh, in my community, I was actually at my first blockade when I was seven and my community was stopping, wanting to stop, you know, the mass amount of encroachment and influx of, uh, extractivism that was happening from logging oil, like conventional oil and gas and now tar sands and fracking. So it's like a very, um, very resource extractive. zone. And so that's where I come from. And that's where many of the communities that I still work in solidarity with to this day are from. And that's the reality that when we talk about environmental racism, you know, this is one of the places just like many of our other BIPOC relations and communities across the area that just live with the impact of extraction. that a lot of people in cities don't necessarily see all the time, unless you're from like Houston and you live in those refinery areas. But it's a really different way of growing up and seeing that, you know, your whole life. Seeing the juxtaposition between the beauty of the land, which is because I, you know, was born in like the early 80s and saw the beauty. of the land was out on the horse and wagon with my kukum and my grandparents and my family. It was something that, you know, back in the day, many communities went out into the church or their traditional territories in horse and wagon and just went and like live there for the summer and, you know, living a traditional subsistence life. And so I was able to experience that as a child and just see the beauty. And I still have memories of. just the beauty of the land and the silence and the like vibrancy and just those memories, I think I'll keep with me, you know, till my grave. Like I will, it's some, I think it's one of the reasons why it drives me to continue to try to protect, you know, the last remaining intact ecosystems in the world, even though it's being actively extracted from. But there's, we really need to kind of. We hear about all of these places in the world that are like, you know, one of the last intact places in like the Northern Boreal is one of those, you know, the Northern lungs of Mother Earth, just like the Southern lungs of Mother Earth is in the Amazon. And we really need to figure out how to continue to protect, but yet we see instead banks and investors investing, continually investing in these types of extraction. zones that is just exacerbating the climate crisis.
Madeleine:
And I will say when you're describing the beauty of the landscapes and how like sublime and just utterly sort of gorgeous these lands are, I mean, for people who aren't aware of like the destruction, it really is impossible to quite fathom until you actually experience it in in person, I think. I like you are doing an amazing job, like getting people aware of this issue and this like being something that is so intrinsic to you and your life. But like, there's only a certain like, the smell, the, the, you know, the sounds like there's only so much, you know, that like a highly skilled, passionate communicator and water protector can do until there's just like a point at which you just can't quite fathom, like unless you actually experience it yourself. And like I was there for, like my mom and I were there for a day or so, maybe a day or two. And just to go back to my home and think about, you know, actually the smell and the sounds like experiencing that indefinitely because you live there was very, very difficult for me to grapple with and very depressing for me to think about. And so just as someone who did not grow up in that community but has experienced the tar sands, I just wanted to add that little note sort of to kind of that added context for people who are listening that, you know, that the cesspools, like the toxic kind of pools of water with all the chemicals are so toxic that if birds land on them, they die. So there's always cannons going off to keep the birds from landing in these pools. And so you're walking through these lands that used to be so gorgeous and it's just kind of a gray scape with cannons going off. that like has really, of course, I will never forget that, you know, that really impacted my own activism and the issues that I cared about, you know, and that was 10 years ago. So I just wanted to add that note.
Melina:
Yeah. And it was one of the strategies that we implemented in something that I did for 10 years was actually bring investors from Europe and bring media from around the world. I can just, so much media that came internationally, like BBC, The Guardian, American, Canadian, Brazilian, German, just... I like a decade, like I was there all the time in the tar sands with investors. Like, you know, I would do like investor tours where it would be like different investors from across Europe would come and I would set up a tour so they could speak to local communities. I could take them to the areas that you were at, Madeline, and also talk to economists, talk to, you know, lawyers that were working on these cases. talk to quote unquote experts that, you know, would, that were verifying that these weren't just anecdotal stories from communities, that these are very real lived concerns with indigenous communities, but also non-indigenous peoples that were like climate, you know, scientists and water experts from the University of Alberta that were very concerned about these issues and worked tirelessly alongside our communities to raise the alarm bell. And So I did that for a decade and I'm actually sick of from it. I actually have, you know, 17 markers of petrochemicals and toxic chemicals in my body from that, because I wasn't, you know, I was in and around where communities live, just like many communities and workers have cancer. You know, I live a daily existence now from that impact, you know, and we don't talk about that a lot of times, even within movement spaces or within activism of like what. organizers have inherited on our bodies as a battlefield within our bodies that we live with daily. And that's something that I live with daily and have medical conditions because of it. So, even when you're bringing up the smell, I actually feel sick from it because I can't
Madeleine:
Mm-hmm.
Melina:
even smell diesel on the street now at this point. And so that's why I can't live at home because I... was just exposed so much. I would do like three hour flyovers, taking photos of like all those photos that are out there now. Just so many photos with so many photographers, for a decade. And just the smell now, I can't even smell like diesel. It just makes me immediately sick. And so there's, yeah, it's something that like you, had an impact for those few days. And for me, it was over a decade of being in there. of non-stop and it has an impact on all of our bodies, you know, in different ways.
Madeleine:
Yeah, yeah, I, first of all, I apologize for bringing that up because I think it's, it's something that I'm sort of thinking about hearing you talk about your own journey with healing and I'm very curious like how your journey with your healing and sort of the health impacts of all of this work how that has kind of evolved over time with your activism how your activism has you know, change over the course of your life in regards to the toll that this has taken on you.
Melina:
Yeah, I feel like many, many people my age and older deal with chronic health issues. If they've been in the movement just kind of like nonstop like I have been, you kind of like, again, it's like this kind of horrible inheritance in a way. It's not the good inheritance. It's like the not so good inheritance where you have. Like for me, I have a complex chronic medical condition now from it. And we don't talk about that. And I wish somebody had told me about this in my 20s and very few people even into my 30s tried to talk to me about it. They saw me going like 150% and a lot of people was like, wow, you're so resilient. Wow, you're so strong. You're a warrior. All of these things that you know, and I was like Yes, you know, okay, I am. But people didn't really ask like, you know, how much are you sleeping or like, are you eating? Or, you know, all of the, are you resting? That wasn't a question. And I think because I grew up as an athlete and as a dancer, I really was able to like abuse my body in a way for the movement, you know, in service of the movement, in service of the collective, but it wasn't necessarily in service of my own body. And so it's something that is now a daily live reality of like, oh, there is impact. And I think when you're in your 20s and 30s even, if you're able bodied, quote unquote, I mean, I already had chronic injuries from car accidents and things like that, but you think that you're invincible. Like there is this invincibility that I remember feeling in my body as like a teenager and then coming into the work. I was like, I can just be on very little sleep, be on very little food. I don't need much to kind of do this work. And that was just kind of the way that was like my M.O. That was just what I did for years and years and years. You know, and eventually it catches up to you. And, you know, now that I'm 41 and I look back, I'm like, oh, it was like 20 years as a blur, like it was just literally like didn't really stop to rest. And so Now I have to really, still wanting to be in the movement, still wanting to have impact in the world and make the world the better place that I've always wanted it to be, still working for a collective. It's figuring out how to include yourself in that sacred hoop. As Indigenous people, as we talk about the sacred hoop, and we know very much we're not in a pyramid scheme, and the natural laws dictate that we are in that. As Indigenous people, as we see everything as equal. you know, whether it's a tree, whether it's a plant, whether it's a rock, whether it's a human, whether it's a pet, whether it is any four-legged one, any winged one, any fish nation, they are all our relations and they are all a part of who, you know, we do this work for and with. But sometimes I think in... white supremacy and hyper productivity, this like this impetus that if you are not hyper productive, if you're not go, go, go, if you're not quote unquote busy, then you're no longer, you're not valued. You're not, you know, out putting something. And, and I think that's why there's been a pushback now. I wish it was more of a pushback, you know, 10, 20 years ago, that might have helped me reduce my impact. But There is now a pushback saying like rest is resistance. It was very few and far between people saying that back in the day, but now you see more like the NAP Ministry and different people talking about healing justice. And it's definitely principles that we are incorporating in at Indigenous Climate Action and Sacred Earth Solar to ensure that we are not replicating the same systems of harm on younger Indigenous or BIPOC. or any bodies that come into this work to ensure that we are incorporating trauma-informed ways of understanding this work that is inherently very traumatic to any person that comes into this work and why we see such high burnout rates, why we see such people that leave the movement. I've had trigger warning, but I've had multiple friends that have decided to leave this world because of the work. And... I think that it's important that we talk about these things because we need to figure out preventative strategies and models and talking about this as opposed to like, oh, you're burnt out, go away and come back when you're better. And people doing this work for the collective, but when people need support, they have to find it individually. And it's not a reciprocal type of relationship a lot of the time. So how do we continue to build community? within a healing justice framework, within a disability justice framework to ensure that all people can do this work from a place when they need to take a step back and still be supportive or when they need to take a step forward and be supported that there needs to be support for all people that are showing up in our movement spaces.
Madeleine:
Thank you so much for sharing all of that. It resonates so deeply, and I'm sure it resonates with everyone who's listening too, because I think, even if you're someone who is in this work, not from a place of more sort of intense survival mode, like really truly fighting for your actual livelihood and your resources, it is a long, like sort of this work is not gonna end. And the way that I think about it and has been really helpful to talk to folks like you who are in this work nonstop because it's not an option is really thinking about rest and incorporating these systems of rest and sort of regenerating into the work because that is how it is sustainable. But what comes to mind for me is you know, sort of your journey and the fact that you, you know, were in the tar sands for 10 years, you grew up in this, you know, area that is so, so, so heavily impacted. That is like a survival mode, you know, that is like, you were literally fighting to, for your resources and for your community and for your lands to like... to stay, to remain. And so I'm wondering, like, how has that kind of, like, is it possible for someone who is entering into this work from more of a place of like curiosity to kind of integrate these systems of kind of healing into their work without already having that extreme. You know, like, I guess my question is more just, how has that sort of extreme impacted your views on the importance of healing now? And you already kind of touched on it.
Melina:
Yeah, I mean, I think I, my mom is a, so like, I'll just say this, my mom is a, is a psychologist and she's worked with residential school survivors, you know, mission school survivors for 30 years. So I've been a very aware of the, I'm sorry, I'll say that again. I've been very aware of the word trauma, but didn't really know what that meant for myself, you know? because I was like, well, I'm able to do this. I, you know, I was like very young and I knew that I wanted to do this work. I had a passion. I was born and I knew this is what I was gonna do. It was like no question. And so I feel like when you come into the world that way and that's, you're just propelled by your passion, I think that's amazing. I would say the only thing that I kind of wish I knew was that when I'm working from a place of passion and then when I'm working from a place of a trauma response. And I feel like now with discernment, I'm able to kind of pinpoint when I'm doing that. And that's a hard thing. You got to, it's because you have to really take a step back and really, you know, sit with yourself and reflect and be like, okay. when am I going into this trauma response? For me, it was the trauma response of like workaholism and like just having to like fix something, right? And like you said, we can't always fix the system overnight. You know, we can make change and it's incremental unfortunately, because we have a lot less resources and funding than, you know, the folks that are for some reason wanting to. destroy the climate and the earth for their own individual profit. And so it's about making sure that now for me, what I can speak for now and hope that what I model to even the staff that we have at ICA or Sacred Earth is to always ensure that we are including healing within that. We are including... kind of the awareness, being mindful, realizing when we are in a trauma response, right? When we are being triggered, being able to take time with that, to tend to oneself, to tend to our community, to tend to our families. And a lot of times I feel like we're kind of like this knee-jerk society. I know I was, I was like, I'm just gonna fix it. And so it was like kind of going into this place where I was fixated on trying to fix a problem. And sometimes we're able to win campaigns and win certain, again, incremental steps. We were able to stop the KXL pipeline. We were able to get divestment from Europe in the tar sands. And so it's kind of like one step forward, two steps back kind of thing. And it's this kind of tiring place that you can get to. And that's when you start realizing you're in burnout. And so it's like trying to understand that this is for the long haul. and it's not a sprint. And that is what I did was 20 years of sprint. And so for people that are listening, it's just like, what are things that you can implement into your own life to ensure that you're tending to your own internal wellness and ways of being. And for me, that's what I had to do. I had to, well, I mean, my body made me take a step back, right, I was bedridden and I lost 25 pounds and I was really sick and I had to really reflect. really reflect on what was my participation, but also not blame just the individual. It's not an individual problem. It's not about like, oh, Melina did this to herself. Yes, Melina participated in that, but also the collective and also the system is exacerbating these issues, right? Because it's like constantly trying to fix something that is bigger than us, right? And so that's why
Madeleine:
Hmm.
Melina:
we have to work in collective. That's why there's people power, but that's why it's like handing off a baton. And it's letting different people run the race at different times and then taking the step back for self care. And that's what I love seeing more and more online with social media is, is seeing people talk about that, right? Talk about what trauma informed ways of being. Talk about this term healing justice that was coined by the Southern Kindred Collective, you know, in 2007, where it was like by Black communities, Black organizers, realizing like, hey, we need to have healing within our movement spaces too. We can't just always live in trauma, right? And I always talk about how for me, it was like doing a lot of these presentations, it was like trauma porn, it was like all this horrible, horrible stories and people would be like, oh, interesting. And then they like have a day in a life of what it's like to be an indigenous person and then walk away and either be really impacted by it and like horrified or just feel like, you know, they've learned something that day. But you know, for those people that are giving those presentations, we are like, reliving trauma, we are re-triggering our trauma. And so we really have to learn how to take care within these movement spaces to, yes, look at the horror, yes, look right in the eye at the horrible things, but also what are the ways in which we can bring about healing, restoration, rejuvenation, resurgence really towards being able to like build back not only ourselves, but our communities and our families in towards healing.
Madeleine:
Yes, absolutely. I'm also thinking about, you know, just transition and ways of healing and like what you've talked about with your work and your organizations. Can you talk a little bit about Sacred Earth Solar and the sort of mission behind it and just the amazing work that it's sort of doing and how it's evolved over time?
Melina:
Yeah, so sacred or solar came out of, you know, the, the origin really was me realizing like, oh my gosh, I can talk to them blue in the face around all of these problems there was, so I was like, you know, at that point I'd been traveling the world and speaking before Norwegian parliament, you like British parliament testifying before us Congress and like, you know, hundreds and hundreds of, of speaking events for, for like 15 years. And. And I was like, yes, we're raising awareness. There was many of us working together, a collective across North America, Turtle Island, doing this work to raise awareness around these issues and the carbon bomb that is the tar sands. And there was a massive oil spill right beside my family. And no one could breathe, their eyes were burning, their stomachs were turning, and people just literally were so sick that they had to shut the school down. And I was like, wow, I can... go across the world and talk about these things and feel like I'm making an impact, but here's my family, like literally breathing in poisonous, noxious gases. And I can't do anything to stop it. And I did, I tried to go home and raise awareness, wrote, helped, write a press release, we put it out. And then finally all the media came, they weren't covering it. And it was just like the poisoning again of our people. And I just realized at that point, I was like, if I'm not building... the solution to the problem, then I don't want to talk about this anymore. Just this. I can't just talk about this. This is like, it's like, it's, it's like a despair. It's like coming from a place of despair. And I, my spirit, I just knew my spirit couldn't take it. It was such a traumatic experience. Witnessing it being in there. Pretty sure I developed PTSD from it. Um, cause I was just like 16 hour, like, you know, in conflict with the state, with the companies, with the company that wouldn't let us into our own territory to see the impact, fighting with people to even just do a flyover, having to secretly get a helicopter to fly us over because any other helicopters, companies were literally hanging up on me, being like, I know who you are. you know, we're not flying you over. And it was like, we literally want to just take pictures of our territory that has literally just been inundated and like beaver dams were inundated. Like it was, you know, a lot of animals were impacted as well. And it was 4.5 million liters. And it was just one of the biggest spills up into that point in Alberta and Canada's history. And now there's another one right now, 5.4 million liters in the Athabasca region. with toxic sludge from the tar sands tailing ponds being leached into the air, to the aquifer. So it's like, it just doesn't stop, right? This was 2011, now it's 2023. It continues to
Madeleine:
Hmm.
Melina:
go. And at that point I was like, I need to look at how to start building renewable energy or transition, you know, what does a just transition look like? At that point, indigenous communities, there was like no just transition in my opinion, in especially in Alberta, a place where it's just like a petro state. there wasn't solar being implemented into indigenous communities. There were some, you know, in some municipalities, because Alberta and Saskatchewan are like one of the, this is the sunniest place in the country. It was, you know, it's just like so much solar potential. And I was just like, you know what, eff this. I'm going back to school. I'm gonna finish, like, I'm gonna finish my masters. I actually went to go do my masters in environmental studies. My mom actually got cancer because she worked. You know, she flew in and out of the tar sands for a decade as a psychologist who will work in flying communities in Fort Chippewa. And she got cancer and I like had to leave my master's degree program. I wanted to go home and be closer to her. And so started campaigning full time. And I just was like, you know what, I'm going to go back and finish my master's. And I went to the university of Victoria and started focusing on indigenous governance and my focus was on renewable energy implementation. So. That's kind of, that's like the story of how Sacred or Solar started was actually out of like an immense need of like, what does just transition actually look like in community? Because I feel like a lot of times people talk about it, but we're not actually implementing it. And we need to really be at a stage of implementation at this point in time, especially with where the climate crisis is at right now. And so I was like, I want to be one of those implementers. And so I fundraised and built a project back home that's a 20.8 kilowatt system that powers our health center and built it with my community, trained young people to help us set up the solar, worked with the folks that have all these amazing skill sets that have had to work on the rigs in oil and gas situations and we utilize their. skills in transition to implementing renewable energy. We did a top of Pull Mount system. And yeah, it's put that in and went up and connected to grid in 2015. So it's been up and that was like, yeah, the start of sacred or solar where other indigenous communities were like, can you help me implement? Can you help me implement? And so we started implementing more projects in so-called British Columbia and Sequetmic and Mizzouatan. sent solar equipment to Fairy Creek blockade, solarized the Onamon Collective out in Ontario with Christy Velcourt and Isaac Murdoch with their art studio, Language Revitalization Camp. We solarized their art studio.
Madeleine:
Hmm.
Melina:
And we're building three more projects this summer. So yeah, it's just trying to do the implementation piece that I think is really important to empower our people, empower our communities to. continue that work because this work is actually happening. And a lot of times we don't see it because I feel like with media, it's like this negative media bias that is so disappointing to see in the world where it's like the bad news stories all get shared, but like the good news stories of communities empowering themselves, putting in food security, renewable energy, eco-housing, they get like a blip in the media cycle if that. And I... feel like it's just about doing the work and that's what sacred or solar is. And then from there, actually sort of filming a TV show where we documented communities spent two and a half, three years going from coast to coast and uplifting the leadership of indigenous peoples that are already implementing all of these types of projects like this diverse array of solutions, climate solutions and climate research. that's happening across the country, but yet people don't know about it and people don't know this climate action is actually happening. So we just decided to make our own TV show about it. And now that TV show, it's called Power to the People. It's airing on three networks, two networks here on the Weather Network channel and also Aboriginal People's Television Network and also another network in Australia, the National Broadcasting Network. in Australia. So yeah, that for me has been exciting because it's like finally solutions. They're here, they're now, they're being done and more people can do them and more people can be inspired by these amazing leaders in their communities that are implementing from inside the communities.
Madeleine:
Oh my gosh, I like don't even know how to respond to that because you're just such a hero. It's like amazing. And I just feel very, very inspired that you are like, okay, I've done this. I've fought to the extent that like I feel my body can take. I'm gonna just do it now and just implement the solutions. And like. do it in a way that improves energy sovereignty and gives resources to the people that need it back. And you're just doing what has to be done, basically. You're creating a blueprint of the world that is more just and that is healthy and is not extractive. And it's extremely inspirational, and I just don't even know. kind of what to say.
Melina:
It can be overwhelming, right? Because I feel like
Madeleine:
Yeah.
Melina:
that's exactly what you said. Like there isn't a blueprint, right? And that's why I think a lot of times people get overwhelmed and they don't want to address the climate crisis, even though the climate crisis is going to address us, front and center, and it's here to stay. And many people kind of with eco-anxiety or eco-grief are just like, pretend it's not there. Let's just pretend it's not there. And that's just not going to suffice at this point. And so I feel like making more blueprints, making more just transitions for people is so important because if we don't make those blueprints, then companies and corporations that have caused the climate crisis are trying to make those blueprints for us and they are not just and they are not transitions that we want to see. It's basically just creating market-based mechanisms that really are detrimental to communities and local communities and still creating sacrifice zones. And so we have that opportunity now, right, to make that transition. So we're actually launching a Just Transition Guide that I based off of my research for the past 10 years. And we're gonna launch it this fall in collaboration with Sacred Earth Solar, Indigenous Climate Action, and based off of the TV show with the research there with Power to the People, and then with support of the David Suzuki Foundation that I worked with as a... a fellow there on climate and renewable energy, indigenous knowledge research. That will come out this fall.
Madeleine:
Amazing. Okay, I would love to be able to direct folks, you know, we'll keep sharing resources obviously in the description of the episode and the newsletter will share like all of the ways to support you and your work and and stay abreast of like all of what you're doing. So let me know when that happens. And when it happens, we'll let everybody know. I just want to acknowledge and kind of transition a little bit. Acknowledging that it is still currently MMIP month, and just taking kind of some time to give you the opportunity to sort of kind of highlight your work around these issues. Like, you know, why do we need year round awareness for MMIP more than just a month? And just go into as much depth or as little depth as you want to on your relationship with these issues.
Melina:
Yeah, I mean, I just, I still can't believe in Fathom that the issues seem to be getting worse when there has been so much awareness raising and work from community organizers and families like mine that have worked tirelessly to find justice for the cases for our family members. Yeah, my heart just... When I think about it, my heart goes out to the other families, the thousands and thousands and thousands of families that have been impacted by murdered and missing Indigenous peoples. It's just like, you know, from the start of colonialism, this has been such an issue of violence against Indigenous bodies. And it just doesn't seem to be, you know, stopping. So the awareness definitely has to continue. For me as a family member, my sister, it will actually be 10 years this year in July when my sister was found dead in Toronto. And she had just graduated three months earlier from a degree at Humber College. And it was a shock to our family because, you know, Bella was like just, she was 25, she was living her life. She was such a vibrant, like. beautiful, bright spirit that she, we just, you know, it was like a shock because I think like many families, and I think that's the thing that pisses me off that people just make assumptions of like the people that are killed are like, you know, make it like, it's just this like victim blaming and that's something that still really bothers me till this day that it's like as if it's people's faults that they are experiencing this violence. in such a violent society. And yeah, it was just a huge shock. I think it's still a shock and it's still something that I grieve multiple times all the time because she was such an integral part of our family and she was so loved. And she was just one of my closest friends, you know? We were very close siblings and... It was a really hard, traumatic loss, the way that she had passed. Her case is still unsolved. And we worked for me. I just, it was something that I was working alongside trying to finish my master's degree in campaign, continually still against the tar sands and doing the implementation stuff. And then it was another piece that we felt surreal when it happened and We pushed so hard with the police department who really wasn't giving us many answers. We hired a private investigator, we've raised funds to hire a PI, found out more information through the PI than we did through the police department. And it was just a really, again, like many things, being Indigenous in this world is very traumatic. And... It was a very traumatic thing that I think I'll just have to carry for the rest of my life because her case is unsolved and when you have an unsolved death in your family, in your direct family, it's like living with an open wound that never heals. And so for me, it's something that when we became... and MMIW, MMIP family member, family, I think, you know, you get the kind of the underbelly of all the stories. You get the, like, because a lot of times I feel like this awareness raising is needed. It's very important. It's a very beautiful show for people around these issues, but when you live it day to day, it takes on a new meaning. A meaning that you really don't want to live, to be quite honest. It's something that the injustice is just like the tar sands, you know, it's like having to live somehow with the injustice, having to live with something that you might never have resolution with in your lifetime. And that's something that why I've known that I've had to really do. focus on healing work because I could feel it like eating inside me. Because there's like this anger, you know, that you carry. And, and I don't want that anger to cannibalize me. You know, I want, I want to be able to live. I know my sister, you know, I know she's proud of the amount that I worked tirelessly day and night, you know, like I was already pretty busy. and then worked kind of like again didn't sleep and just worked constantly putting pressure on the police department, constantly writing op-eds for the media, doing media interviews. Our family participated in the Murder and Missing Indigenous Women's Girls and Two-Spirited Inquiry that happened just after my sister passed. We testified before the commissioners. And... It just, it's hard when you work so hard and tirelessly to solve something and you can't, and you're somehow unable to uncover the truth to find justice for your family member's death. And after doing that for, you know, five to seven years, I realized, wow, this is like, Kind of eating me alive, I need to take a step back and... The case is cold right now and it's trying to know that eventually, you know what, the people that were there that night with her will, I hope, in this lifetime be brought to justice. But also know that, you know, the universe has bigger plans and our actions have consequences. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter what place in society you hold. Just like in the tar sands, just like with violence against women, our actions, whether in this lifetime or the next, will have consequences. And that's something that I've had to come to terms with. And I really think for people that are listening, if you wanna work on MMIW, MMIP, MMIR work, Figure out how to support a family, figure out how to support families directly. That for me was the biggest aha moment of being like how the people that showed up that could really show up for our family really show up for me, you know, sit with me and write the op-eds or like give me edits or help me put out memes or like. turn out posters or like walk with me. All of the people that were able to show support as a family member, I can't even tell you, like I will forever be grateful to those people. It was like a lifeline. And I would say for like awareness, it's important. But if you can have relationship, if there's ways to show up for families, those families need it. Our families need that support because it is really hard to find justice in a judicial system that does not wanna have justice for our people. It is a very taxing, taxing burden to have when you're looking for justice for your family member. So for me, that's what I think about sometimes with awareness raising. The awareness raising is important, but really figure out if you're able to support the families in their quest for justice and in their quest for healing too, you know. A lot of our families have memorials for our families. And it's something, like I said, it's never gonna fully heal, but. It's something that I feel like we should be able to find some sort of peace with it, whether it just be even be peace with peace within our communities, peace with ceremony, peace with the finding the relief in the collective.
Madeleine:
I want to end on a note of finding peace with the collective. And I was going to ask you about your dreams and the importance of dreaming and looking towards the future. But I also want to, if someone's listening and hearing you, share all of this really important information about what families actually need and the help that they do need. Seeding will share resources for sure, but also this issue and this epidemic is, it's an incredible understatement to say of sensitive and complicated and complex, extremely complex. And so for those of us who are listening, who are really interested in helping from a support and healing perspective, do you have... sort of some words for those families or people who might not be within these communities already, who maybe wanna lend a hand, sort of just ways to go about, or ways to frame or think about the issue or reach out to a family.
Melina:
Mm-hmm. Well, there are organizations like Indigenous-led organizations that reached out to my family to support, and I actually knew them personally just from being within, you know, organizing collectives already. So I was really lucky that way. But I would say if you have a personal relationship with the family... that's great. Obviously, it's a very, like you said, it's a very sensitive topic. So sometimes, you know, you're not always like random people that are reaching out to me. I'm right. It's there's always you have to trust people, right? There's there's a there's a important foundational way that we create community. And that's through trust and trust is slow and trust is is is proven also. Right. And so If you want to be involved, there's probably organizations that have that trust within community, trust within families, trust that work with families already. So lending your support through those already those organizations that have the trust. I think would be one way or just, yeah, lending your time, lending your ability to create, you know, awareness, like, you know, even people printing pictures of Bella was really helpful or legal support, right? That's also a really big barrier for a lot of families to go and find justice within this. judicial system that is very inaccessible and very traumatizing when you're in it. So having an intermediary. So I was really lucky to be able to connect with Krista Bigton Canoe and other people at the Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto. So there's different legal services that can lend support for families. I'm not sure of the ones. in so-called US, so I'm thinking seeding sovereignty could probably,
Madeleine:
Yeah.
Melina:
I know is probably connected with folks more in the US. Obviously, the different jurisdictions lend different barriers depending on where your family member has passed. But I would just say all that to say is lending support in whatever way you can, whether it be financially, whether it be through your time, whether it be for creating healing spaces for communities. being able to work with healers has been super helpful to be able to access healing. It's really hard too with the pandemic, but also just having safe spaces for healing, I think is really important. And so that's a part of even what we're doing with Sacred or Solar this year is building a lodge, helping to build, solarize a lodge that's being built for. for LGTBIQA plus peoples to ensure that there's safe healing spaces where people can have ceremony on the land. Those types of things are really important too, right? So that's what I would probably say for now.
Madeleine:
Yeah, thank you, Melina. Yes, we will definitely share resources and organizations that folks can get in touch with and where there's really that trust. Because again, every family is different, every family heals differently and goes through this processes differently and so has different needs. So thank you. And And I just want to end with thinking about dreaming about indigenous futures and how you honor all of the complexity that happens with your work and just the nature of this work and thinking about moving forward, thinking about the future is the importance of dreaming and just how you dream and what do you think in the future, how you frame this.
Melina:
Hmm. Well, I do really think that, you know, I look to the past of like how we address the present and the future. Our people were like magical. You know, I hear of all these amazing stories from my dad as somebody that was hidden from residential school for the first decade of his life. He was the youngest, so my grandparents hid him from the Indian agent that would come into the community and take all the children. And so he was hidden for the first decade of his life. He was able to be given, taught in like the traditional sense of the ways in which children would be taught was with being with the elders, sitting with the elders. He was the only child left in the community. So he was taught every story. And these stories are from, for millennia, you know, from the, before the last Ice Age. And some of those stories are just, like magical of the things that our people were capable of and how spiritually grounded our people were. And I feel like that always gives me the visioning for the future around being able to. metamorphosize and transmute, you know, all of the trauma, all of the negativity, all of the things systemically that are being imposed upon people, all bodies, you know, through white supremacy. And how do we transmute that? How do we create a metamorphosis within our own body, within our own healing, you know? And how do we take that power back? And for me, That's what Indigenous futurisms would be of really reconnecting to land when and wherever possible, being in ceremony with the land, whether it be individually or collectively in both. And how do we create, continue to create that healing? One thing that my dad told me that always stayed with me is that our culture evolves, you know, it's not stagnant. Culture is there to serve the people and it evolves to ensure that we can utilize it in a way that continues to keep us grounded, continues to keep our values intact, continues to, you know, the values of seeing the relationships that exist all around us with winged ones, with plant nations, with... fish nations with all living beings. There's such a beauty in that. And that's something that I think for me creates peace, creates joy, creates love, creates laughter for the beauty that's all around us. And how do we, you know, I think for a lot of us as indigenous peoples, especially the BIPOC peoples and all bodies really that all bodies have been impacted by white supremacy. read Resma Menikim and My Grandmother's Hands. It's an amazing book. And I've been doing, I'm in my second year of somatic therapy training with Resma. And it's just being able to really go back into the body. A lot of us have been cut off intentionally. We are living this cognitive existence. And a lot of times I realized I was living cognitively because it was too painful to be in my body. And... now being able to honor whatever's there in my body, and being okay, whether it's fear, whether it's anger, whether it's rage, whether it's exhaustion, whether it's laughter, whether it's all of the things, we have this human existence that all of us are. able to tap into, you know, we are all connected to source. And so for me, what features look like is being able to, like so many that have come before us, you know, like Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King, you know, crazy horse sitting bull, like so many, um, people that have had that new and learned somehow to metamorphosize and transform. all of the dark, trauma, toxic energy that's placed upon us, how do we? process that. into something that's beautiful. And for me, that's really where I want my journey to be, continuing in this work. And that's what I think of when I think of indigenous futures of being able to, yes, see the bad, but also see the good and realize they're one and the same. That is what our elders thought. That is what our elders knew. And I feel like... coming back to that is really how we're gonna be able to face the climate crisis because it's huge, right? And how do we stay embodied? That for me is something that is, you know, a part of what the creator has given us. Our ability, you know, can be a blessing and a curse, but it's something that we all have access to, to live that within our bodies. And... cutting ourselves off or cutting myself off, I realized I was no longer living my full life, my full self. And I really wanna be able to, even if we go down in flames, you know, I wanna enjoy the beauty that is here and that is now. and share it with others.
Madeleine:
Thank you for sharing all of that. That was some... I'm not going to try to follow up with anything. I'm just going to give you the opportunity if you have anything else to say that we didn't cover to share.
Melina:
Hmm. Just nothing major. I'd say probably just like, yeah, connect, follow us on social media. If you can support future projects or reshare the projects that we implement. If anyone's connected to media in the US and wants to see shows like Power to the People that are indigenous led climate solutions on. network there, get in contact. I think just continuing to uplift Indigenous stories I think is what I've wanted to see for 20 years and more and more I'm seeing it and it brings me great joy and let's continue to do that and uplift and support each other.
Madeleine:
Thank you so much, Melina.
Melina:
Thank you. Thanks for having me.